


Monster

by inourtownofpanem



Category: The Enemy Series - Charlie Higson
Genre: Protective Siblings, insert you're doing amazing sweetie meme here
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-12-15
Updated: 2018-03-14
Packaged: 2019-02-15 05:16:03
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,617
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13023999
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/inourtownofpanem/pseuds/inourtownofpanem
Summary: Meet Elle Carter; twin sister of the infamous Ed Carter and frequent rule breaker.Unlike her brother, she was stuck in London when everything went to hell, unable to leave or have any contact with her beloved twin brother. After she was forced to kill her mother and elder brother, Elle waited at home for her brother to come but he never did. Believing that he'd left the city, Elle packed up her belongings and left London for the countryside.Elle survived in the countryside for over a year, waiting for her brother to come, but he never did. She never gave up, however. On one of her endless missions for food and other supplies, she came across Malik and Ella and decides to stay with them until she sees a face she never thought she'd see again.Her brother's.





	1. Chapter 1

The sound of birds singing and a cool breeze blowing through the trees was all she could hear, but she was keeping an ear out for something else. Thankfully for her, what she was looking for was far larger than any bird and far stupider – if that was even a word. She didn’t know anymore. School and learning hadn’t been part of her life for over a year now, it didn’t matter.

She'd been there for hours, perched in a tree like a bird, her eyes focused on the dusty path beneath her. At first, she’d found it boring; spending precious hours of her day waiting for something to happen but over the months she’d spent doing it, she’d gotten used to it and would spend most of her time going over and over her memories. They used to bother her and keep her awake at night, but now they comforted her, they were the only things that reminded her of who she used to be.

Her dark brown eyes snapped open as soon as she heard something coming down the dusty path below her. The grip on her bow tightened, her dark brown eyes narrowing as she focused on her target. The father stumbled loudly through the woods, completely unaware of the shadowy figure perched in a tree above his head, studying every small movement he made.

Once the father was a few feet in front of her, she released the arrow and watched as it flew through the air with no real effort and struck the grown-up directly in the eye, causing the father to go down with a loud THUMP to the dusty ground below him.

The girl waited a few moments for any other grown-ups that may be around before she placed her arrow back into her quiver and the bow around her body, taking a deep breath as she jumped off the branch of the tree and landed on the ground somewhat gracefully and without injury.

She walked slowly towards the body of the grown-up, removing her hunting knife from her belt before she kneeled down beside the grown-up. With her free hand, she pushed back the hood of her jacket and the mask over her face to reveal her dirt and mud-covered face, the only things visible against her dirt covered face were her plump pink lips and her dark brown eyes, which were almost the same colour as the rest of her face. Her once light blonde hair was now a muddy brown from being covered in mud and dirt on an almost daily basis for a year without being washed – she didn’t have time to wash it and she didn’t want to waste her precious water by using it to wash herself.

Bringing the knife up, she dug it into the father’s chest and ripped it open, black blood and puss almost exploding out of the cut. The smell was even worse, causing the girl to cringe and bring the mask back over her face to hide at least some of the smell but it didn’t help much.

Even after being around dead and decaying grown-ups for so long, there was no getting used to that goddamn smell that made her eyes water and her gag reflexes seriously come into question, and it only seemed to get worse as the days and weeks went on.

Ignoring the smell and the disgustingness of the dead grown-up, the girl pulled her mask back down and dove her hands into the grown-up’s chest and covered her hands in the blood and puss and proceeded to cover her entire face with them, going over the mud and let it drip down her face and neck and towards her chest, ignoring the chill that went down her spine.

Once she was finished, she forced the arrow out of the father’s eye before cleaning it on her jacket and moving off, leaving the body in the middle of the path. Placing her hood back on her head, the girl moved quietly through the woods, zoning out once again.

She knew she could zone out whenever she wanted but at the same time, she knew that she needed to remain alert in case any other grown-ups came her way or even worse – other kids.

Ever since she’d arrived in the countryside over a year ago, her biggest worry wasn’t grown-ups, it was other kids. At first, she’d asked around if any of the kids had seen her friends and family that she had been trying to find, but that had turned up nothing. She didn’t get on with a lot of the kids that were around the area, they’d called her names and almost straight up told her that she wasn’t welcome there. So, she left them and never looked back, she stayed out of their way and they mostly stayed out of hers.

Sometimes on her travels, she’d hear them out on their own scavenging missions and she’d always take that as her queue to either hide or run. She’d usually run, not wanting to be anywhere near them when they were looking for grown-ups or supplies.

Walking through the silent woodland, the brunette found herself humming a quiet tune to herself – her voice was hoarse and dry from not being used in almost a year. Being so isolated and away from other human beings, the girl saw no use in using her voice, so she just stopped talking altogether. And it was surprisingly easier than she thought it would’ve been, all the talking she did, happened inside her head – not that there was much talking to be done, she was a lone wolf in this new world and she wouldn’t let anyone into her pack.

But the loneliness was slowly killing her – that was something she never wanted to admit to herself, but it was the truth. No matter how many times she told herself that she was content with being alone, she craved companionship. She needed someone to talk to, but there was no-one around for miles – at least, no-one that she was aware of.

She pushed those thoughts of loneliness aside, knowing they’d only make her upset and there was no time to be sad in this world. She had to be numb to everything, that was the only way she’d ever get through it.

The remainder of the brunette’s day was filled with going to the nearest village to scavenge for whatever was useful – and not just in terms of food. She’d take gardening tools and tinned cutlery from people’s houses, things she may find useful in the future.

She knew she needed to move on at some point; but there was nowhere else to go. The supplies were getting harder and harder to find and she knew she wouldn’t last another six months with what little supplies that remained. She didn’t want to leave what she had – this was home now, whether she liked it or not.

She arrived home at sundown, being careful not to set off any of her traps that had been untouched throughout the day once more. Her home was an abandoned cottage at the end of a dirt pathway, at least a mile away from civilisation and surrounded by woodland which made hunting for wild animals almost a natural source of food.

Walking through the dark house, she placed her backpack down on the kitchen table before lighting a single candle and moving towards a small washing up bowl filled with dirty water – the only water she allowed herself to use to clean herself with although she mostly did it for her face. After removing her hooded jacket and her mask, she scrubbed the mud and blood off her face, cringing a little as some of it was almost permanently stuck to her face and was painful to remove.

She looked in a piece of broken mirror to make sure all the mud was off her face and her bruised and battered face stared back at her. Under the mud and blood, the girl had an array of bruises and cuts she had collected over the year since the disaster – not much she could do about them. They would heal, eventually. At least, she hoped they would.

Taking hold of the candle, she walked through the house and towards the now abandoned living room that she rarely used. Dust and spiderwebs covered the furniture that hadn’t been touched or used in months, giving the entire room the vibe that it had been abandoned and nobody had even stepped foot inside it for years.

With a slightly rusted kitchen knife that had been left on the window sill, she carved a small strike on the wall along with the others – she kept a diary of how many days she’d been on her own by carving tally charts on the walls.

395.

That’s how long she’d been on her own.

Three hundred and ninety-five days.

Watching.

Waiting.

Surviving.

 

* * *

 

**_Note_ **

Back with more Enemy fanfics, I know. This story won't be set within the Beautiful Crime universe so sadly, there will be no Adelaide or Dorothy. I think this will be a lot shorter than my other stories because it basically only takes place over the course of two books whereas my other fics take place over the entire series. I'm going to try to make this story as canon as possible because I'm finally reading The Hunted so I'm going to try to get this as accurate as possible.

First chapter is done! I hope you all liked it! Malik and Ella will be in the next chapter, I promise, I just wanted to give a little introduction to our protagonist before she meets Malik and Ella.

I mostly wrote a lot of this because we had #MalikWeek not too long ago and I originally wanted to get this chapter out for that but of course, I couldn’t get it out in time so now we’re stuck with a late entry for it.


	2. Chapter 2

By the time the sun was rising over the horizon, the girl was already awake and eating her breakfast, which was a tin of what she guessed were peaches – but it honestly could've been anything since the label had long since worn off and they certainly didn't taste of peaches. It wasn't much, but it was something. After her scavenger mission the day before, she'd gotten all the supplies she needed to make new weapons and fix her current ones.

After she finished her breakfast, she collected her belongings and walked out of her house and towards the workshop situated at the bottom of the large garden. Leaving her home behind her, she walked into the dim light of the morning; only going by instinct and memory rather than visibility.

Inside her workshop was a desk covered in various materials she used to repair her knives, swords and bow and to make her arrows. Over the past year, she had learned fairly early on how important it was to maintain the condition of her weapons and to make sure she was always in high supply of them in case of a horde.

She spent most of her day in the workshop, making almost fifteen arrows out of scrap metal and a Bunsen burner – burning parts of her hands and fingers a few times in the process – and cleaning her weapons as best as she could, making sure that everything was prepared for the next time she'd go out.

After a quick lunch, she decided to go out to spend the remainder of the day scavenging. She'd already put the mud all over her face and placed her hood and mask over her head and face to hide her identity. She preferred the anonymity the hood and the mask brought to her life, it helped her separate her past from who she was now.

There wasn't really any need for her to go out; she'd gotten all the supplies she needed the day before, but she didn't want to be in her house, preferring the solitude and the freedom of the world outside. Plus, there was probably more grown-ups around that needed to be taken care of.

She knew she wasn't living – but then again, nobody really was – she was surviving, and she didn't want to do that anymore. She wanted to **_live_**. And she wasn't going to get that by living a life of solitude, isolated from everyone and everything with only her own thoughts for company. But it wasn't as simple as just integrating herself back into the society that had formed around her, they didn't trust her, and she didn't trust them and in this new world; trust could mean the difference between life and death.

Walking through a thicket of woods, the girl heard a scream and instantly froze. It was a human scream – not the scream of an infected adult. She looked behind her, towards home for a moment before turning back towards where the scream came from. **_Fuck it_**. She sprinted towards the sounds of screaming and shouting, being careful not to trip over the roots of trees as she sprinted.

She didn't know what was going to be ahead of her, but all she knew was that she needed to keep running. She was aware that it could've been a trap set up by grown-ups or other kids, but her gut was telling her that it was something more and she knew to always trust her guts.

Coming out of the thicket, the girl found herself in unfamiliar territory. She'd never been to this part of the countryside before and the thought of it scared her a little, but she knew she needed to press on and continued sprinting. But she stopped to catch her breath, leaning over a little to rest her hands on her knees as her chest heaved.

Hearing another series of screaming and shouting, her back straightened and she began to sprint once more. She had to keep going, no matter how much her chest burned and how hard it was for her to breathe – she knew that if she stopped, she'd be too late to help whoever was in trouble.

Continuing her sprinting, the girl came across a farmhouse and came to a sliding halt once she noticed a small group of grown-ups – around five of them, closing in on a small blonde-haired girl who had to have been the one screaming, but she was standing completely motionless against a slightly open gate, obviously petrified.

The girl kept on running, grabbing her bow and an arrow and began firing at the grown-ups, taking three of them down, allowing her access to the small girl. Once she pushed through the grown-ups, the brunette stood in front of the blonde. "Run," the older girl instructed the younger girl, her voice coming out hoarse and crackly. The blonde just nodded her head, running off inside while the brunette stood there in shock – she'd just uttered her first word in over a year and the first time she'd said something to someone or something that didn't want to kill her.

She couldn't stand there for too long because a mother had begun to tug at her arm, trying to bite into her. She rolled her eyes, grabbing a knife and dug it into the mother's skull, killing her instantly.

Just as she was about to take down the final grown-up – a thin and lanky looking father – she was interrupted by a low growl, causing her to turn around and she felt her heart stop as she came face to face with the scarred face of a kid.


End file.
